[clubsoda22]

The THR awards got me thinking. Who is the most liberal and most conservative on this board? Answer truthfully as it would be neat to see the spectrum.

Political Compass (http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/questionnaire.pl?page=1)

This is the best political compass i have found. It's perfect for this board as gun ownership is not a question in the test (where we'd all answer mostly the same)

Note to the politically inept: this test might not be for you as many questions are confusing if you do not know the issues.

my coodinates are -4.75, -5.54

Here's a look at where other well known leaders stand

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/images/internationalchart.jpg

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/images/axeswithnames.gif

[tiberius]

Economic Left/Right: 3.88
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13

Right - Libertarian


I imagine many most here will be in the lower right quadrant as well, though I'm sure my numbers would change a little if I took the quiz again.

[AJ Dual]

Right-Libertarian.

Good to see that I'm consistent.

I wonder what pattern a plot would show of all world leaders for the past 100 years would show.

The above sample is a bit sparse, but I see there is no one in the Libertarian-Right quadrant. Perhaps that's what is "wrong" with the world.

[Marko Kloos]

Economic Left/Right: 9.75
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.77

Can't get much further to the right/libertarian corner. :cool:

[mtnbkr]

I'm more or less right where I thought I was:

Economic Left/Right: 4.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.56


http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/questionnaire.pl?page=printable_graph&X=4.25&Y=-2.56

Chris

[Grey54956]

Hmmm... Interesting. But, its about where I expected I would be...

Economic Left/Right: 0.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.79

I could go into how I interepret this, but I think we can all figure it out.

[DaveB]

Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.97

Me and Gandhi? Seems about right.

db

[tiberius]

The above sample is a bit sparse, but I see there is no one in the Libertarian-Right quadrant. Perhaps that's what is "wrong" with the world.

This is a good point and I have a theory on it. We are doing self evaluations, while the world leaders are being scored based on their actual actions. I have a feeling that it is VERY difficult to support libertarian principles when you are the one in charge.....power corrupts. Many of them may have scored more in the libertarian half if they gave themselves the test earlier in their lives. Also an authoritarian bent will tend to make people seek leadership positions where libertarians want to "live-and-let-live", IMHO.

Whataya think?

[seeker_two]

Economic Left/Right: 1.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.46

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/questionnaire.pl?page=printable_graph&X=1.38&Y=-0.46

Not quite as Libertarian as I thought. Gotta work on that...:uhoh:

[AZTOY]

Your political compass

Economic Left/Right: -4.00
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.41

[Malone LaVeigh]

This topic has been done to death. I stand for what I stand on.

Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.18

Happy to be in the company of Ghandi and the Dalai Lama.

[clubsoda22]

Ok, so malone and dave are more liberal than me. we got a nice spectrum here.

[Preacherman]

I'm right slap bang in the middle of the graph. Moderate me... :D

[Lone_Gunman]

Preacherman, so was I. I am just a hair to the right of the center point.

But if you look at the graph with the names of famous people on it, George W Bush is far to the right. GWB should be on the liberal authoritarian part of the graph considering his commentment to big government, increased spending, and social engineering. A conservative he is not.

[Andrew Rothman]

This is me.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?s=&postid=680872

[nygunguy]

Please delete this I was trying to put my chart in and blew it!

[clubsoda22]

Here's a quick look at the 2003 candidates.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/images/USPrimaries031002.gif

As you can see, the difference between Democrat and Republican is pretty thin, and liberalism has nothing to do with party affiliation.

[jwmoore]

Economic Left/Right: 4.62
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13

:D

There really should be an "I don't care" option for each of those questions.

~W

[grampster]

I'm smack dab in the middle with Preacherman. Does that make me, gasp, a moderate? Oh my gaw, and here Attila was my first cousin.

Seriously, the questions were pretty loaded if you ask me as they were pretty dogmatic. But, I guess you can't have any "yeah, but..." questions in a poll of this nature.

:confused: grampster:eek:

[dischord]

I didn't get past the false dilemma in the first question: "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations."

[Jim March]

Economic Left/Right: 6.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.38

http://www.equalccw.com/graph.gif

Dead center of right/Lib :D.

[clubsoda22]

Anyone who is confused read the FAQ. It's very enlightening. From friends i have talked to, both the leftists and rightists think it is biased against them.

[10-Ring]

That was fun! I will have to send if off to a few people & see what they think :D

[atek3]

Economic Left/Right: 7.88
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.97

I don't like this test for many reasons.
the authors bias comes out too much for example

>Controlling inflation is more important than controlling unemployment.
keynesian non-sense. A better question would have been, "If you have a central bank in charge of the money supply, should it try and "prime the pump"(keynesian) or should it maintain stable rate of money creation(monetarist)" The question presupposes government control of the money supply which most radical libertarians(austrians) oppose.

Another one:
>Corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily respect the environment.

Put it this way, if you had a choice "more profit or less profit" and you were a business what would you choose. Throw in a system without property rights in which people can pollute without repercussions, of course "Corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily respect the environment". However, this presents a false alternative, environmental wasteland(with healthy corporate profit), and big government environmentalism.


Another one:
>If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.

False dichotomy. Clearly written by a liberal. TNC's serve humanity by selling them things they want at prices they are willing to pay. When some process like government interferes and foists choices onto consumers, that isn't globalization, thats facism. Many US companies are guilty of this. DynCorp for example is a big-money TNC, Private Military Contractor that makes money spraying Columbia with herbicides. Why? Because the US government pays them. Columbia's supreme court ordered them to stop because the herbicide is teratogenic and damages non-coca crops equally well. The US government belayed that order. I think columbia would be within their rights (all though completely suicidal) to warn those choppers to leave their airspace, and if they refused, shoot them down. (As the drug warriors did to a missionary plane in peru. The pervuvians were operating off of radar information obtained from a US private military contractor's AWACS)

atek3

[mercedesrules]

As a libertarian-anarchist, I stand outside the square looking into the abyss from the lower perimeter. I couldn't even take the test due to its statist bias: "Government should do this" or "government should do that..."

MR

[Linux&Gun Guy]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 5.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.51

Yay! Im a Right wing Libertarian

[ReadyontheRight]

I'm just inder the "R" in the Libertarian camp. Right next to Uncle Milty Friedman.:)

There are a lot of complains about the phrasing of the questions, but is there anyone who thinks this test does NOT come pretty close to their politics? Especially if you consider the examples of the political figures on the chart.

[ReadyontheRight]

Also an authoritarian bent will tend to make people seek leadership positions where libertarians want to "live-and-let-live"

This is a very good point. Why would a Libertarian WANT to be in politics?

[atek3]

mercedes, we anarchists aren't against government, we are simply for self-government, right :) (as well as protection compacts, private insurance/defense, mutual defence co-ops, etc. etc.)

atek3

[iapetus]

Economic Left/Right: 2.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.38


Hmmm....

Last time I took a test like this (about 2 weeks ago, and my politics haven't changed since then that I know of), I came out as centre-left, and a lot more libertarian.

Just goes to show it depends on what questions they're asking.


And on a lot of these ones, I'd want to have an intermediate answer, or say ...under these circumstances..., or get them to rephrase the question.

Also, I think that on some of the "morality" questions, the options don't cater for those who think "you shouldn't do that, but its your choice".

[mercedesrules]

mercedes, we anarchists aren't against government, we are simply for self-government, right (as well as protection compacts, private insurance/defense, mutual defence co-ops, etc. etc.)

atek3

Right! *sobs uncontrollably, babbling, "I'm not alone...etc."* ;)

MR

[clubsoda22]

All the questions about bias are addressed in the FAQ.

[cracked butt]

6.25
1.13

[nico]

I took it a while ago.
left/right 0.00
authoritarian/libertarian -1.95

Just took it again:
left/right 1.88
authoritarian/libertarian -.41

I took it about six months ago, and I'm almost certain that some of the questions have been changed.

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

How does a far-left socialist like Adolph Hitler wind up in the right hand column in this test.

That casts a huge amount of doubt on the test's validity.

[clubsoda22]

guess what luke, that also happens to be in the FAQ

[boltaction]

Anybody can put together a "test". We all know that any pollster can skew results based on the phrasing of the questions, and this test is an excellent example. (Atek3 makes some good points - see esp. his comment re: false dichotomies: these abound). Further, it is a judgement call to decide where your answers place you; and what gives about not having a "pass" or a "moderate" answer? I would have been more than satisfied with that answer on a few of them.

If you look at where Bush winds up, you can paint him as an extremist...gee, wonder who made up this test? oh, a journalist and an academic. Boy am I surprised (and I speak as someone who has worked in academics for that past 26 years). So many of the questions are "loaded" in this test. I think it is a bunch of bull. And as far as filling it out for politicians, they say: "How can you tell where they're honestly at by asking them? Especially around election time. We've relied on reports, parliamentary records, ... and actions that spoke louder than words. " Totally bogus. Maybe you could guess their answers for the following test:

http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

but not for a six pager full of complexly phrased questions, unless you designed the questions and the scoring implications of their answers to give you a particular outcome. This is just more pseudo-academic baloney (sorry for the strong language!).

Personally, I think the short one at "self-gov.org" is better; try both.

Boltaction

[Border]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -4.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.97

I'm Ghandi with a gun! :D

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

clubsoda22

guess what luke, that also happens to be in the FAQ

I'm afraid thier answer doesn't stand up to scrutiny and casts even more doubt on this mapping quiz. They are using a very ad hoc and historically innacurate characterization of the Nazi regime as right wing.

The first point in their FAQ for example is contradicted by their second.

Nazisim and Fascism, they say in thier first point, are characterized by promotion of violence against minorities.

The Nazi economic policy, they say in their second point, was far to the right of Stalin's. They never define what they mean by "to the right of."

So in other words, Stalinism is characteristic of Socialism, and Nazism isn't.

First off, Stalin's regime was characterized by extreme violence against ethnic minorities, more so than the Nazis or any Fascist regime.

And secondly, the Nazi economic policy was very similar to Stalins in it's central planning, emphasis on military spending, etc. In other words, Socialist.

The authors don't seem to have any clear understanding of the differences between Communism, Socialism, and Fascism. Or the fact that all three had their roots in the European political left.

I could go on for a page or two.

I'd seriously like to see a FAQ from them explaining how they wind up with Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in the far left, even though the Baathist party and economic policies were modeled directly on the German Nazi party and economic policies, which they place to the right. Makes no sense at all.

This mapping quiz is poorly thought out and biased. It seems to be designed to make everyone who takes it say to themselves, "Dang, I should have been a Libertarian."

[Sean Smith]

Economic Left/Right: 3.62
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.95

As usual. :D

[71Commander]

Lower left.

Econ -3.75
Lib/Aut -3.28

[Quartus]

There are a lot of complains about the phrasing of the questions, but is there anyone who thinks this test does NOT come pretty close to their politics?


Yep. Nowhere close. I haven't seen one of those yet that is worth the time it takes to answer the questions.

For example, the question about what should be regarded as art: A much better question is, "what does art have to do with politics?"

Their question is designed to find out how you stand on the National Endowment for the Arts, and is a lousy way to get that awnser.

[MicroBalrog]

Economic Right/Left: -0.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian:-5.95

[DigitalWarrior]

Oh right, the greens don't want to have the government tell me everything that I can do or cant do. Or tell the government to protect the people from profit.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/images/enParties.gif

[iapetus]

Nazisim and Fascism, they say in thier first point, are characterized by promotion of violence against minorities.

The Nazi economic policy, they say in their second point, was far to the right of Stalin's. They never define what they mean by "to the right of."

So in other words, Stalinism is characteristic of Socialism, and Nazism isn't.

First off, Stalin's regime was characterized by extreme violence against ethnic minorities, more so than the Nazis or any Fascist regime.


Stalin was more racist than the Nazis?

You sure?

I know Stalin (and other Commies) persecuted ethnic minorities (despite it going against the idea of "international solidarity", but you can't expect tyrants not to be hypocrites).

But a fundamental part of Nazism was the belief that the German/Nordic People was inherently genetically superior to all others (and especially superior to certain races, like the Jews and Slavs). And they took this to mean that the "inferior" races should surrender their lands to the Germans (and preferably be exterminated where possible).

Which, to my mind, is as about the most "extreme violence against ethnic minorities" you can get.


And secondly, the Nazi economic policy was very similar to Stalin’s in it's central planning, emphasis on military spending, etc. In other words, Socialist.


Didn't Stalin want complete equalization of wealth (except for his chums)? Which would make him (hypocritical) extreme left-wing.

Whereas Hitler and the Nazis, while being somewhat anti-big-business (except when owned by their chums), weren't inherently against people owning their own business and making a profit (unless them were Jews/etc). Which would make them "less left-wing than Stalin". (I can't say exactly how much, because I don't know enough detail about either them or the left-right scale).


I'd seriously like to see a FAQ from them explaining how they wind up with Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in the far left, even though the Baathist party and economic policies were modeled directly on the German Nazi party and economic policies, which they place to the right. Makes no sense at all.


I've often heard (from UK media) that Saddam idolised and was inspired by Stalin. (Don't know if they were talking about economics, though, or just general method of government).



Still, I agree this “compass” is not perfect.

But I think it’s a heck of a lot better than the traditional “condense everything into a one-dimensional ‘left-right’ scale”.


(And if all sides of the political spectrum think its biased against them, it probably balances out (mostly)).

[Atticus]

Economic Left/Right: -0.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.41

[tcdrennen]

Economic Left/Right: 8.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.23

I thought I'd be further down into the bottom, but that's pretty close to what I expected.

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

iapetus wrote:

Stalin was more racist than the Nazis?
You sure?

I don't think I said that Stalin was more of a racist than Hitler, only that he persecuted ethnic minorities to greater extent. The mass starvation of Ukranians for example.

However you're right about racisim not being an official part of Soviet Communist doctrine.

My point is that the author's of the quiz do not have a rational explaination for characterizing the Nazi regime as rightist. Using racisim as a marker doesn't work.

In terms of Economic policy, most socialist regimes permit private enterprize while mandating government control of the economy or ownership of heavy industry, and high level of military or public works spending (eg. Japan). The authors don't seem to recognize the difference between communist regimes which typically prohibit private enterprize and socialist regimes which typically don't.

The authors make the point that self description as Socialist isn't a fair way to judge whether a regime is truly socialist. They make the point that the GDR shouldn't be taken as representative of a democracy for example. While that's true, it misses the point that the Nazi regime did practice most aspects of a socialist economic and political system.

If Saddam Husseins regime permitted private enterprize, which it did, and was clearly racist, as it was, why is he way to the left on the chart and not closer to Hitler's position?

The authors seem to equate racisim with Fascism, with no examples to back up this contention. Mussilini, Franco, Strossener, and Pinochet (pardon the spelling) weren't rabid racists that I can recall.

[Ryder]

I'm a Canadian :confused:

Bad test.

[Dog]

Economic Left/Right: 0.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.33

[Freedspeak]

Economic Left/Right: 1.62
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.62

I do agree some of the questions were a bit loaded, and didn't give much of a wide enough choice.

[carpettbaggerr]

I didn't get past the false dilemma in the first question: "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations."
I got past it, but for most of the questions, I wanted to say "not really". I scored in the upper right though I'd say I'm more libertarian.

[Chris Rhines]

I took this test a few months ago, and pretty much fell out the bottom. I doubt that I've changed much... ;)

- Chris

[Zach S]

I imagine many most here will be in the lower right quadrant as well, though I'm sure my numbers would change a little if I took the quiz again I'm in the lower right as well. I didnt take the test but have before at other boards.